Recently, there has been an increase in the number of complaints against the country's airlines regarding flight punctuality and passenger service. According to representatives of Air Astana, the airline's flight punctuality rate for the past few months has been 77%.

The protection of passengers' rights became the main topic of a meeting chaired by Talgat Lastaev, Vice Minister of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan. During the meeting, which involved representatives of airlines and airports across the country, issues related to flight delays, aircraft substitutions, airport queues, and other passenger rights violations were discussed. Special attention was given to ensuring flight punctuality and preparations for the upcoming winter season.

Currently, compensation for aircraft substitutions is only provided to business class passengers. The Vice Minister instructed airlines to work on implementing a ban on aircraft substitutions, as well as to ensure mandatory fleet reserves—Fly Arystan aircraft should only be replaced with Fly Arystan, and Air Astana with Air Astana. Talgat Lastaev also instructed carriers to take additional measures to improve on-time performance discipline, especially under seasonal load conditions.

In addition, the meeting addressed issues related to the quality of service and the work of ground handling services, in particular, inappropriate behavior of staff towards passengers. Airline and airport management were instructed to improve service quality, enhance training and customer service culture, streamline security screening procedures to avoid queues, and complete ongoing repairs at the capital airport in a timely manner.

A separate issue raised was the accessibility of flight check-in. Fly Arystan’s online check-in opens 30 days before departure, but airport check-in comes with an additional fee. This creates difficulties for elderly passengers and people with disabilities who do not use mobile devices. The Ministry has instructed the development of additional service mechanisms for such categories of passengers.

Following the meeting, a decision was made to conduct inspections of airline and airport operations. Inspectors from the Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan (AAK) will be stationed in the departure and arrival halls of Astana and Almaty airports for two weeks to monitor flight delays and conduct passenger surveys.

The Ministry of Transport emphasized that the rights and interests of passengers remain an unconditional priority of state policy in the field of civil aviation.